Time To Rock 2023: Summary of the warm-up party with The Crypt as a big attraction

Initially known as Helge Å Festival, in honor of the river that passes directly through the festival area, the organization of the festival itself decided to change the name of the festival to Time To Rock in 2022 after fifteen years with its previous name, with the intention to strengthen its position as a festival both at the state and international level. Its organizers have very clear ideas, Time To Rock must unify hard rock, blues and heavy metal in a single place: The People’s Park in Knislinge, a unique event for music lovers.

The forementioned park would host a total of forty-five bands from the aforementioned genres for four days, with some room for British punk such as The Toy Dolls. The first day, July 7, began with the performance of local Släkkten, a young peasant rock group that combines folk music with current rock. They have been active since 2015, although their debut EP did not arrive until 2018, an album called Hembygden that you can find on Spotify. Since then the band has changed their way of working and has opted to release singles on a regular basis rather than unifying everything into a single release, and they have eleven releases since their debut

The quintet from the city of Göinge had already participated in the previous edition of the festival as a guest band within the VIP area, and apparently they liked it so much that the organization has decided to include them in this new edition as part of the poster for the entire public, and I must admit that it was a success. Great performance by these five crazy young people on stage whose mission was to open the festival, an objective more than achieved.

Next it was the turn of the Swedish composer and musician Mats Ronander under his own band Mats Ronander Band. The famous musician has participated with a large number of Swedish bands and groups, sharing backstage with members of Peps & the Blues Quality or the guitarist Lasse Wellander, known for being part of ABBA. The event was more than attractive since a musician of Mats Ronander’s caliber usually offers a lot of play on stage, however on this occasion the Swedish composer did not seem to have the best of days

I cannot compare it with any other previous live show since it was the first and only time I have seen him on stage, but at times it seemed that he was somewhat absent or disconnected from the show, even though his performance was more than correct. His repertoire of Swedish songs is not something that I can remember, to be honest, although I can say that I enjoyed the latest songs such as Gör Mig Lycklig Nu, recorded by Kim Larsen and Ronander himself in 1992, and Flesh & Blood that he also composed together with Henrik Janson.

Next was Happy Hour, a very festive band that has been active since 1997. Their initial idea was to play punk until at a certain point they decided to exchange their instruments for those they were not as proficient in and to record the first takes. of songs that, at most, had to take five minutes to write. Despite their long career -6 albums in 26 years- Happy Hour has only played live fifteen times to date.

As you can imagine, the evening was perfect for having a good time, with a group of crazy musicians made up of eight shameless men who made the entire audience there sing and jump in the most pleasant way, making their time on stage non-stop with a show as simple as it is effective. Are two vocalists not enough in the absence of one? Better three vocalists, as in the case of Happy Hour, the show is guaranteed.

As the night fell, it was the turn of Gasbox, a tribute band to the late Kim Larsen – of whom I have spoken above – whose members manage to pay a heartfelt musical tribute to the legacy of the late Danish musician and his band Gasolin. Despite the band’s attractive proposal, I have never been a fan of tribute bands, in addition to the fact that the show itself seemed quite long and at times boring. I understand that the proposal is interesting and there were many people enjoying the show in the audience, but I, however, was not able to fully connect with their music.

Against all odds, without knowing absolutely anything about their existence, the Swedes The Crypt came on stage after a few minutes of delay trying to adjust their sound to the maximum. When the stage lights came on and the musicians came out, I was stunned. I wasn’t expecting something like this to end the night of the welcome party. What surprised me most is the little information about the band that you can find on the internet, and that the project only has one single released to date titled Into The Crypt -which was also sold at the festival- and which was released more than a year and a half ago.

It should be said that The Crypt‘s show is very worked on, the band has invested time in its preparation and has studied how they want to look on stage, taking care of their image and choreography to make their show something that you could hardly forget. In metallum you will only find information about its “only” member, bassist Leif Edling, who has been part of Candlemass since its formation in 1984. In addition to having a solo project under his own name, Edling is also bassist for Krux and The Doomsday Kingdom, and has been a member of Avatarium, Nemesis, Trilogy, Witchcraft, and Abstrakt Algebra

With so little information about their work I wouldn’t want to venture to talk about their future or their members since I don’t know them, but I can assure you that it was a most pleasant surprise to see them perform on the Ticketmaster Stage late at night. Their gloomy and sinister proposal reminded me of the first concerts of their Swedish compatriots Ghost with their debut album, combined with the theatricality of the Americans Coven by Jinx Dawson and other more current proposals such as the versatile Unto Others or the Danish Demon Head.